Unveiling new buses, gearhead Cuomo professes love of mass transit

Renowned gearhead he might be. But that doesn't preclude him from loving mass transit.

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Or so he argued Tuesday afternoon in the middle of a fluorescent-lit bus garage in Manhattan.

“People from the outer boroughs drive cars,” said Cuomo, who developed a love for muscle cars while growing up in Queens. “That doesn’t make them bad people. Driving a car doesn’t mean you don’t take mass transit. Being a person who enjoys cars as a hobby — I enjoy older, ‘68, ‘72 muscle cars — that doesn’t mean I’m not an advocate for mass transit, right?”

The governor effectively runs the MTA, which, in turns, operates the bulk of the region's mass transit system. Yet over the years, he has developed a reputation among advocates for not caring much for mass transit, a reputation he now seems intent on changing.

He belatedly brokered an MTA funding scheme, embraced the need for a new cross-Hudson rail tunnel, and announced plans to make Penn Station and LaGuardia Airport less execrable.

He has also held press conferences about buses.

On Tuesday, the governor gathered the press in that Midtown bus garage to announce that the first seven of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s newfangled buses would hit the road that same day.

The articulated buses will sport Wifi, USB ports on the ceiling, and a deep blue paint job with yellow and electric blue swooshes.

“I love that blue,” said Cuomo. “I have an old GTO the same color blue. So it looks fast that bus.”

The first 75 buses, which will be on the road by summer, will serve southeastern Queens and Nassau County.

Ultimately, the MTA will spend $1.5 billion to replace 40 percent of its fleet with more than 2,000 new vehicles.

“I am not a design expert, but I think it is a good-looking bus,” said Cuomo. “I like the blue, I like the sense of motion and the graphics. It is sophisticated, yet not tedious, and is playful but serious.”

The MTA, which Cuomo effectively controls, will be paying for those new buses out of its five-year, $27 billion capital plan, which the governor has promised to fully fund and the state is expected to approve.

“There’s nothing like that new bus smell, you know?” said Cuomo on Tuesday, after checking out one of the new vehicles himself.